Blizzard: WoW Sales, StarCraft II Beta Soon

Share.

Company talks about latest numbers, and they're big.

By Jason Ocampo

Paul Sams, the chief operating officer of Blizzard, dropped some staggering numbers during Activision Blizzard's fourth quarter financial call on Wednesday. For starters, he reported that The Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft shattered PC sales records, recording 2.8 million copies sold in the first 24 hours, and 4 million sold in its first month. This made it the biggest PC game of 2008.

Sams also reported that subscriptions for World of Warcraft grew by 1.8 million in 2008, with the growth being roughly even between Eastern and Western territories. Company revenues grew by 21-percent over 2007, with revenue coming from World of Warcraft, the expansion, and retail.

The company didn't reveal any new details regarding its upcoming lineup, aside from word that the StarCraft II beta test will start in the next few months and will use a new version of the company's popular Battle.net gaming service. The first game in the StarCraft II trilogy will release as soon as possible, but what that translates to exactly is unknown. However, Sams said that Blizzard is committed to releasing one front line release per year, so it's sounding like Diablo III is going to be a 2010 title, as Blizzard execs have said on previously that the first StarCraft II game will ship before Diablo III.

Blizzard will also release Wrath of the Lich King in China this year, so expect those sales figures to rise quite a bit.